Retail tech firms crowd into Industry City as Brooklyn fulfillment hub grows

Highline Commerce has expanded to 60,000 square feet at Industry City and is using humanoid robots from Ultra Robotics to handle part of its fulfillment work. The Brooklyn campus is becoming a magnet for e-commerce, robotics and logistics companies looking to scale in New York without leaving the city.

Why it matters: - Industry City is emerging as a retail technology cluster in Brooklyn, giving logistics, robotics and consumer brands room to scale in New York. - Highline Commerce is now filling up to 30% of client orders with humanoid robots, showing how automation is moving into real-world fulfillment outside Amazon. - The campus offers an alternative to leaving the city, where high real estate costs often push growing companies out.

What happened: - Highline Commerce expanded to 60,000 square feet at Industry City in its fourth year on campus. - Ultra Robotics, another Industry City tenant, supplies the humanoid robots used in Highline Commerce’s fulfillment process. - Highline Commerce now serves more than 200 brands from Industry City. - The company grew from 27,000 to 60,000 square feet after choosing Industry City over the Brooklyn Army Terminal and the Navy Yard. - Industry City says the campus now hosts more than 700 companies and 8,500 daily workers.

The details: - Highline Commerce fills up to 30% of the pick, tote, scan and conveyor process with humanoid robots. - The robots operate 24 hours a day without breaks. - Highline Commerce is one of the first 3PLs in the country to deploy humanoid robots outside of Amazon. - The company says the robots are helping brands that started with a handful of orders grow to as much as $50 million a year. - Ultra Robotics is Y Combinator-backed. - Other retail-sector businesses at Industry City include Tailored Industry, Gowanus Print Lab, Alquist Robotics and Puff Media. - Other logistics companies on campus include YSDS and Contanmar Shipping. - Consumer brands producing, warehousing or shipping from Industry City include Le Labo, Strand Bookstore, Adafruit, Stoney Clover Lane, Roman & Williams, MPB, The Future Perfect, Miss Circle and Walmart eyewear supplier M Factory. - Industry City’s physical infrastructure includes abundant loading docks, oversized freight elevators, 200-pound floor loads, three-phase power and gas. - The campus has enterprise-grade connectivity through more than 35 carriers and ISPs, plus dark fiber cabling. - Industry City also says it has access to 50 megawatts of power and up to 22.5% in energy cost savings.

Between the lines: - Industry City is benefiting from a broader shift in New York, where e-commerce growth is pulling more production, printing, fulfillment and robotics work closer to the brands themselves. - The clustering effect matters because tenant companies can test, iterate and collaborate onsite faster than they could in a spread-out supply chain. - Shared amenities and events at the campus also appear to be helping companies meet potential partners and customers. - Jeff Fein, senior vice president of Industry City, said New York is moving from a place that sold things to a place that makes them. - Richard Hurley, founder and CEO of Highline Commerce, said the campus model works because production, fulfillment and robots operate within feet of one another.

What's next: - More e-commerce brands, logistics firms and robotics startups appear likely to keep moving into Industry City as space and infrastructure become harder to find elsewhere in Brooklyn. - Highline Commerce’s use of humanoid robots could serve as a model for other 3PLs that want to automate without relying on Amazon-scale systems. - Industry City is likely to keep using its mix of industrial capacity, connectivity and shared amenities to attract companies building retail technology in New York.

The bottom line: - Industry City is turning Brooklyn into a live testbed for retail tech, where fulfillment, automation and brand building are happening in the same place.